The Film Daily (1918)

Wednesday, July 24, 1918 DAILY Captivating Star and Good Twists Make This Delightful Comedy Gladys Hulette and Creighton Hale in "WAIFS" Astra=Pathe DIRECTOR Albert Parker AUTHOR Grace Startwell Mason SCENARIO BY Frank Leon Smith CAMERAMAN A. Ortlieb AS A WHOLE Pleasing little romance, well played STORY New twists and delightful star make old idea entertaining; contains plenty of com= edy and well=worked=out suspense. DIRECTION Injected pleasing comedy touches and handled mysterious crook character in= telligentlv. Developed suspense. PHOTOGRAPHY*. Good straight stuff; not exceptional. LIGHTINGS Rather good on star and registered some effective bits but too uniform at times. CAMERA WORK Good angles STAR Beautiful and captivating SUPPORT Very good; Creighton Hale pleasing hero and Walter Heirs will get laughs. EXTERIORS Fitted atmosphere INTERIORS Acceptable DETAIL Some pleasing touches although titles could have been worded much better. CHARACTER OF STORY. ..Delightful comedy romance. Clean and entertaining. LENGTH OF PRODUCTION 4,600 feet YOU fellers who have been yelling for clean, entertaining lihns without any murder and wild stuff will certainly be delighted with this and so will your audiences. We have an old idea here that lias been worked out with new twists, contains some delightful comedy bits, a touch of mystery and a well balanced cast that lints it over witli a bang. .Many of your folks will have the finish of fh's doped out in advance but Ave get enough individual incidents all along to make the offering entertaining. This starts off with two partners, one of them the father of Shero and the other having a nephew whom Shero has never seen. They have planned to have their charges marry anil Shero, not liking the idea, runs away to Xew York. Hero's father has had her shadowed by a detective who reports her whereabouts and father and the uncle plan on a scheme to buy off the landlady and have the nephew stop at the same house and thereby develop the romance a la desert island style. For the purposes of the scenario, they established Shero as the only lodger, which was inconsistent but won't worry you. Up to this time we have not seen the nephew and they give us a good twist in introducing Creighton Hale as a young reporter and when he conveniently happens by the house in time to save Shero from a mysterious crook who has been hanging around, you are going to figure that Hale is the nephew. Hero Creighton Hale, learning that Shero is alone in the house, stays to protect her and when Walter Heirs, the real nephew, comes around as per his uncle's instructions. Hero kicks him out. While Hero goes out to phone, the mysterious crook enters the house undiscovered. Hero returns and stays at the house all night, sleeping in the hallway. In the meantime the detective has seen Shero and Hero eating together and reports to the uncle and father that the scheme is working great, not knowing that Hero is not the nephew. The next morning. Shero finds a basket of food on the step with a note which gets over that Hero's visit has been framed and she tells him she never wants to see him again, lie starts to leave when the crook, who has been in the house all night, leaps on him and we have a good scrap. Shero runs for help and finds Walter Heirs, who has slept on the front steps all night and he bein' a boob guy, knocks Hero cold and lets the crook escape. Walter has phoned his uncle, who arrives on the scene with Shero's father. Explanations follow and Walter gets the air and then. God bless 'em. instead of giving us the clutch, we had Shero askin' Hero to be at her house for dinner the following evening. During the scrap. Shero has rescued "the poipers" for which crook had come to the house and which Hero had been trying for five years to obtain. Walter Heirs was funny as the fat boob nephew, flreiffhfon Hale was a thoroughly likable Hero, while J. H. Gilmore was satisfactory as Shero's father. The crook made his part convincing by keeping the ehai'acter within bounds. Play Up as Clean, Wholesome Comedy-Drama, They'll Like It The Box Office Analysis for the Exhibitor This is delightful, wholesome comedy drama and I think that most folks are going to rave over it and tell their friends to see it. They've developed a certain amount of suspense and a mystery character here without letting the production become too melodramatic at any time and Miss Hulette is certainly beautiful and captivating throughout. I would play up the comedy-romance idea for all it's worth wc gel all too little of it in the average program production. I would make considerable fuss about Miss Hulette and Creighton Hale, a very likable pair that work well together and would use their photos prominently in my ads and lobby display. Vim might use eatchlinos like this: "What would you do if you fell in love with a fellow whom you met accidentally and then learned that the meeting had been framed by your father and his uncle? See Gladys Hulette in 'Waifs' ". I don't think the title "Waifs" is going to create any furore and I would try and dig up a better one. "Waifs" has been used before and doesn't mean anything. YTou might call this "A Happy Mistake", "An Accidental Romance", "A Boomerang Frame-up", "Framers Framed" or "When Cupid Stacks the Cards", any of which should mean more at the box-office than the title Pathe has wished on the production. In using another -_ title, it is not necessary to provide a new one for the film. You can word all your advertising thusly: " 'AN ACCIDENTAL ROMANCE' adapted from 'Waifs' ", or, " 'Waifs' or 'AN ACCIDENTAL ROMANCE' ". Make the new title prominent and carry the regular title in smaller type.